Afghan Embassy staff worked through
piles of royal-blue Afghanistan passports, hurrying to complete paperwork
for as many of the men as possible before they themselves are forced to
leave Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday ordered the
Afghan Embassy in Riyadh closed within 48 hours. Saudi Arabia said it was
cutting all ties with Afghanistan's Taliban government in light of its
refusal to surrender "terrorists and criminals."

Saudi Arabia's move leaves Pakistan
the only country still in diplomatic contact with the Taliban in their
showdown over the United States' demand that they surrender Osama bin Laden.

The United States blames the Saudi
dissident, living in exile in Afghanistan, for the Sept. 11 terror attacks
on the World Trade Center and Washington. The Taliban have refused to turn
him over unless Washington supplies evidence of his guilt.

About 200,000 Afghans live in the
Saudi kingdom, most of them labourers filling jobs in construction and
other heavy industries. Tuesday's order to the Afghan Embassy does not
affect their status.

Afghan men, most heavily bearded
and wearing traditional Afghan robes, crowded round the embassy as soon
as it opened Wednesday.

After years in Saudi Arabia, many
needed to renew their passports to return home. Others went to the embassy
to seek counsel from the diplomats on their next move.

Workers from the seven-member embassy
staff exhorted the crowd — telling the men the choice was theirs, but their
country needed them.

"It is our duty to defend our country
and our people," said Molawi Muttiallah, embassy charge d'affaires. "And
God willing, I too am going back for that same purpose."

Diplomats inside the yellow villa
where the embassy is housed scrambled to complete work and pack up for
a Thursday departure.

Matiullah said he hoped the standoff
over bin Laden would end peacefully.

Outside, the waiting men said they
were ready for war. Fierceness and defiance fuelled in Afghanistan's Soviet
occupation of the 1980s, and nurtured in generations of conflict before
and after, spilled out in martial words.

"We were born in war and we will
die in one," declared Dawood Nazer. "We are ready for jihad (holy war.)"

"We don't fear America or war," added
Nazer, the father of four. "We fear only God."

Many of the men said they had contacted
families back in Afghanistan to tell them they were returning to fight.

"I would love to die as a martyr
and I have already informed my family of my intentions," said Akhtar Mohammed,
18, of Kabul.

"They were very proud of me," he
added.

"Let America come," said Deedar Khan,
37. "We will be ready for them. We are born warriors, and we will die as
martyrs."